Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya…

PAWWWLLL!!! has a little shit-stirring he’d like to share with everyone.

Finebaum was a recent guest on the Cellini & Dimino show on 680 The Fan and explained why the two SEC coaches won’t likely be exchanging Christmas cards anytime soon.

“Remember, Kirby Smart spent all those years under Nick Saban. He knows what it is like to be an assistant. Even though he was his top assistant, Saban does not treat his assistants well, in fact, he treats them shabbily,” Finebaum said on the show. “And I think Kirby left there and there was a lot of fingerpointing toward Kirby, as you guys have heard.

“Even though they won the championship (in 2016), Alabama gave up nearly 40 points to Clemson. They pointed towards Kirby and what really created the friction that exists to this day is that Alabama officials and coaches blame Kirby Smart for ripping off the inner sanctum recruiting room — which is in Saban’s office. If you go to the secondary office where they keep all the prospects, what I mean by that, Kirby went to recruits and said, ‘Hey listen. We want you, you are No. 1 on our list but I know for a fact Alabama has you third or fourth or fifth.’ And that cost Alabama some key recruits and they have not forgiven Kirby Smart yet in Tuscaloosa.”

Yeah, Alabama’s recruiting has really suffered since Smart decamped for Athens.  Jesus, these people whine.  What’s gonna happen should the pupil finally beat the master?

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The SEC dog that didn’t bark.

South Carolina’s president says his peers are going to bitch and moan some more with each other about conference scheduling.

Also back on the table for discussion is changing the scheduling format as it relates to cross-divisional opponents. Currently, each SEC team plays the six others in their division, and there’s one rotating opponent and another permanent opponent from the opposite division.

Some schools want to go to change to a format that calls for two rotating opponents from the opposite division, eliminating the permanent opponent. Others have traditional rivals across the division that they want to continue to schedule. It’s a discussion that’s been had many times.

“We voted to continue to study football scheduling,” Pastides said. “It’s a potentially very divisive issue – we’re talking about the inter-divisional competition that has Texas A&M be our so-called permanent Western rival. Several of us, we’d rather see more rotation, and really that’s for student-athlete well-being.

“We all loved going to Ole Miss last year and seeing that great university and watching our students have an opportunity in their four years at the university to see more of the SEC peers. There, of course, are other SEC programs that have an intra-divisional rival – Georgia and Auburn, for example – and they don’t really want to give that particular one up. Tennessee and Alabama goes back deep in history and so that will be a continued item for negotiation. I don’t know where it will end up, but we’re studying it yet again.”

Notice the one thing he didn’t mention there?  (Hint:  it’s a four-letter word that begins with “n” and rhymes with “fine”.)

Enjoy your next trip to College Station, sir.  You made this particular bed, so have a nice time lying in it.

There’s only one thing that really matters.

And it’s why Greg McGarity’s continued employment isn’t in a smidgen of trouble.

#2 Georgia $129.0 million

This was the Bulldogs’ so-close-to-a-championship season ruined by Tua Tagovailoa’s overtime strike. Few saw the run to the CFP title game coming after Kirby Smart’s 8-5 year in 2016. But if you had to name the epicenter urban locale of college football, it’s probably Atlanta. If you had to name a state, probably GA. Everyone in the vicinity got very excited about the Dawgs to the tune of an $84.1M profit. UGa jumped 5 spots from the 2016-17 list.

Number two in football revenue and, more importantly, number two in football profit, is all anyone at Butts-Mehre genuflects to.  Winning may be nice, but it’s a means to an end.

Pat yourselves on the back, peeps.  He couldn’t do it without you.

(h/t)

It’s a new day at Georgia Tech.

Preseason happy talk?  You’re at Georgia Tech!  YOU CAN DO THAT!!!

Good catching up with @CoachCollins this morning. He said the strength staff is doing an excellent job of helping to establish the culture. The kids are buying in and having fun.

— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) March 15, 2019

One thing I’ll say for the genius is that he didn’t waste any effort on smoke blowing.  He just blamed his defensive coordinators for being inept.  (Not that he didn’t have a point.)

Georgia’s first world problem

Reading Jake Rowe’s thought piece on spring questions for Georgia’s offense, I’m struck by these most of all:

• Where will Sam Pittman look for depth at tackle?
• Can Jamaree Salyer win or take a starting job?
• Who’ll be the starting center?

My two questions in response:  (1) Is anyone truly worried about Pittman finding satisfactory answers to all three questions by season’s start? and (2) Did you ever think we’d see the day when we’d feel like that about the offensive line?

The forever war

I know Tommy Perkins is tired of me quoting him, but I’ll never get enough of this analogy:

Miami: From a Bulldog perspective, if you looked at the state of Florida as though it were Afghanistan (and I do), the Gators, obviously, are the Taliban, while Miami is whatever warlord is running things in the Northeast. The Hurricanes don’t occupy anything remotely resembling moral high ground, but they are useful.

Indeed.

The quote came to mind again after reading Bud Elliott’s look at in state recruiting by Florida’s big three.  The good news there is that there’s a reason times haven’t been as good as usual in the Sunshine State.

There were 42 in-state four- and five-stars from Florida. Only 20 stayed in the state. That is not a good sign for the in-state schools.

The bad news is that it appears the Gators are starting to get a little traction ahead of their two in state rivals.

It is, however, somewhat understandable. Florida needed time to build relationships with targets and should be set up to have an even stronger 2020 class. FSU had a losing record for the first time in almost four decades and if it can make it back to a bowl in 2019, should be better on the trail. And Miami had its coach retire after a tumultuous season. Manny Diaz should be better in his first full class.

‘Bama and Clemson (natch) have done their respective parts in harvesting some of the recruiting wreckage and Georgia helped itself to three four-star kids, but overall, there are some warlords who need to step up their recruiting games and soon.

Which of Georgia’s early birds catches the worm?

The Telegraph’s Brandon Sudge suggests three names to watch this spring:  Nakobe Dean, Clay Webb and Stetson Bennett.

Dean is immensely talented, but will have to fight through a lot of upperclass experience to see the field at ILB.  (Special teams, though, is where he’s likely to get early playing time.)  Webb is another talented kid, but it’s not as if there a lack of that on the offensive line.  Bennett is most likely what we think Bennett is.

I’m gonna have to stick with my pick for breakout player in the 2019 class, Jermaine Johnson.  He’s got talent and Kirby has a need for it.

Your picks?

Today, in BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH

I know this is ostensibly a Georgia-centric college football blog, so arguably it might be irresponsible of me to post about basketball, but, friends, I submit to you when it involves Georgia Tech like this…

Georgia Tech has been served by the NCAA with a notice of allegations regarding alleged recruiting violations committed by former assistant basketball coach Darryl LaBarrie and Ron Bell, the former friend of coach Josh Pastner. The NCAA’s enforcement staff found two of the three allegations to constitute severe breaches of conduct (Level I violations), which are the highest level of violations in the NCAA’s structure.

… to paraphrase Peggy Noonan, it would be irresponsible for me not to post about basketball.

The jokes, as we like to say, write themselves.  Start with the lowest hanging fruit.

 

The good news for Tech is that they won’t have anything to vacate this time.

— dawgsonline (@dawgsonline) March 15, 2019

Then, there’s the inevitable result of having a shortage of women on campus.

The NCAA found that in November 2016 – six months after his hire to join Pastner’s staff – LaBarrie took a prospect on an official visit and a team member to a strip club…

Given Atlanta’s stellar reputation with regard to entertainment venues, that kind of casts Geoff Collins’ newfound recruiting emphasis on the “404” in a whole new light.  You gotta use all your resources.

Likewise, Tech was not found to be lacking institutional control or to have failed to monitor.

I’m not surprised.  Given the lack of results, why would anyone in Tech’s administration have figured there was something amiss in the first place?

I’m also not surprised there’s nothing going on with the football program.  With the genius’ lack of interest in recruiting, why bother trying to cheat?

I could go on, but, as I mentioned at the beginning, this is a football blog.  Don’t let that stop you in the comments, though.

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UPDATE:  Death, taxes and delusional Stingtalk hot takes.

Some of y’all need to chill out. Anyone who follows the Bball program has known about this for over a year. Wake up, Bball is a dirty sport. We had some things go sideways and have had to be above board since. As a result, we’ve got zero recruits.

We need to let this blow over and then get back on track.

The only real question I have about all this is whether unc or duke had anything to do with it. Mike and Roy were worried about JP kicking their asses.

Yeah, we’re not worried.  Duke should be worried.